MT-CGCNN: Integrating Crystal Graph Convolutional Neural Network with Multitask Learning for Material Property Prediction

TL;DR

This paper introduces MT-CGCNN, a multi-task learning model that enhances crystal property predictions by integrating transfer learning with a graph convolutional neural network, improving accuracy and efficiency in material discovery.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel multi-task learning framework combining CGCNN with transfer learning, significantly improving prediction accuracy for multiple material properties.

Findings

Reduces test error by up to 8% on correlated properties

Maintains lower test error with 10% less training data

Improves metal/non-metal classification accuracy

Abstract

Developing accurate, transferable and computationally inexpensive machine learning models can rapidly accelerate the discovery and development of new materials. Some of the major challenges involved in developing such models are, (i) limited availability of materials data as compared to other fields, (ii) lack of universal descriptor of materials to predict its various properties. The limited availability of materials data can be addressed through transfer learning, while the generic representation was recently addressed by Xie and Grossman [1], where they developed a crystal graph convolutional neural network (CGCNN) that provides a unified representation of crystals. In this work, we develop a new model (MT-CGCNN) by integrating CGCNN with transfer learning based on multi-task (MT) learning. We demonstrate the effectiveness of MT-CGCNN by simultaneous prediction of various material properties such as Formation Energy, Band Gap and Fermi Energy for a wide range of inorganic crystals (46774 materials). MT-CGCNN is able to reduce the test error when employed on correlated properties by upto 8%. The model prediction has lower test error compared to CGCNN, even when the training data is reduced by 10%. We also demonstrate our model's better performance through prediction of end user scenario related to metal/non-metal classification. These results encourage further development of machine learning approaches which leverage multi-task learning to address the aforementioned challenges in the discovery of new materials. We make MT-CGCNN's source code available to encourage reproducible research.